1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for analyzing postural changes to assess mental engagement during cognitive tasks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Determining the degree of mental engagement in cognitive work is potentially critical for a wide range of tasks, including flying an airplane, operating a boat, air traffic control, operation of automobiles, and/or operation of unmanned robotic vehicles through virtual interfaces.
Present efforts towards analyzing cognitive engagement focus on identifying physiological measures from neural or physiological domains and attempting to correlate these measures to cognitive states. For example, EEG or pupillometry are highly susceptible to eye movement, blinking, and other sources of activity, in addition to the time between EEG recording and food intake. Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for measuring automatic motor behaviors to measure cognitive engagement.
Presently available means of measuring the position and orientation of sensors attached to various body parts, such as the head, arms, legs or torso, include magnetic positioning sensors such as those marketed by Ascension Technology Corp. under the trademark FLOCK OF BIRDS. The operation of such motion tracker is explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,744,953 and 5,831,260. The algorithms for determining the position and orientation of the sensors with respect to a reference sensor are best explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,849,692, 4,945,305, and 6,172,499.
Presently available position and orientation measuring means using ultrasonic positional sensors include those marketed by Logitech, Inc., and are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,506. Other ultrasonic position measuring devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,450,752 and 5,591,914.
Although there are presently available means for monitoring the position and orientation of various body parts, there is a need for correlating these measurements with cognitive engagement so that they may be used as a measure of cognitive engagement during the performance of cognitive work. Additionally, there is a need to perform these measurements upon seated personnel during the performance of cognitive tasks.